Department Store (1935) User Reviews

Short and sweet

[Spondonman · 7/10 · 26 January 2014]

A better class quota quickie – this was another Real Art production from Julius Hagen at Twickenham, cheaply made of course but entertaining notwithstanding. The censors certificate at the start states the title is Department Stores so maybe it was a large operation, and the credits hail An All Star Cast - although there are many British minor film stalwarts in here it's rather a hopeful credit. But as the lead man Sebastian Shaw later went on to appear in Return Of The Jedi maybe the farce stayed with him!

As separate favours two people start on the same day at a dysfunctional department store: one the well-bred heir to the store the other a light-fingered crook. Garry Marsh plays the thieving tripe-talking manager who gets the two the wrong way round thereby greasing up to the crook and giving the owners' son a hard time. The film concerns the farcical comedy of errors with many deceptions and a robbery. The moral to me is that as the baddies couldn't recognise obvious good breeding from one of their own low kind they deserved all their luck – Class should tell after all, shouldn't it? From my experience all the Little Hitler's I've ever known always knew who to toady to and who to spurn from blind instinct. There's time for a sprinkling of romance, even smart-ass cynicism and it's fascinating to watch pan out, and well worth the 67 minute running time of a regrettably grotty print.

The Cracksman on the Staff

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 13 March 2020]

A slick little Twickenham quickie that vouchsafes a few home truths about the realities of life for ordinary working stiffs during the thirties (there's a reference at one point to "the cuts", the working day we're told is 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. and you had to be the owner's nephew to be eligible for two week's leave on full pay), served up with style and a sense of humour.

As the obnoxious manager who toadies up to those with influence while bullying those without Garry Marsh confirms that he was never young.

Department Store review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 23 April 2020]

Decent little quota quickie which sees a case of mistaken identity leading to the nephew of the owner of a department store being hired to crack its safe. Garry Marsh stands out as the store's crooked boss.

1930s version of Are You Being Served

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 19 May 2013]

Sebastian Shaw plays the heir to the Department Store,sent to learn the business from the ground up.Jack Melford with a similar sounding name ,is confused by the crooked store manager,played by Garry Marsh,for Shaw.So Shaw gets the sacked porters job and Melford gets the private office and secretary.Also to be seen at the start of her career is Geraldine Fitzgerald.The confusion continues to the end when in a rather farcical ending Melford and his accomplice are nabbed after trying to break into the store safe deposit boxes.The film hardly taxes the imagination but is reasonably entertaining.Rather what you would expect from Twickenham Studios,the experts par excellence at making quota quickies.

Department Store

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 25 May 2023]

This is actually quite a fun little throw-away mystery that I couldn't help but think would have been a good vehicle for Norman Wisdom! It's all centred around the nephew of the wealthy owner of of a big store who is to be sent, incognito, into the business to learn the ropes. Only the general manager "Bradbury" (Garry Marsh) knows the true identity of his charge (Sebastian Shaw). Simultaneously, "Burge" (Jack Melford) arrives and is soon on the enormous salary of 15 guineas per week! Shortly thereafter news of an impending general audit is announced. This is when we discover that "Bradbury" has had his hands in the till and so he engages "Burge" to help him out. Thing is, there's been a mix up at check-in, and only we are actually sure whom is whom! It's a simple, light-hearted, comedy with no jeopardy or menace, but a hint of just desserts as it moves along, quickly, for just over an hour. You won't remember it, but you might quite enjoy it if you like this style of cheap and cheerful British afternoon cinema fodder.

Not as dated as expected

[plan99 · 7/10 · 13 February 2024]

As this film was almost 90 years old I had expected to watch only ten minutes or so as films from this era are often very difficult to watch due to their very dated style, but this was not the case.

A very good script with great performances all round and a glimpse into the past when the lower classes knew their place by tugging their forelocks to the toffs at regular intervals and calling their social betters "sir" or "madam".

One of the female characters had a large flying saucer shaped piece of lace on the front of her dress, very odd.

Well worth watching as it's very funny and time capsule.

A quota quickie classic, no blue light special.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 15 March 2023]

From "Dark Victory" and "Wuthering Heights" to the "Arthur" movies and two episodes of "Golden Girls". That's just a brief summary of the career of Irish actress Geraldine Fitzgerald who got her restart in this British quota quickie, a fantastic look at the going on inside a department store that involves mixed identity's, corruption and lots of intrigue. It's a fun comedy of ironies that features the lovely Ms. Fitzgerald as a clerk involved in the sinister activities of crooked department store manager Garry Marsh, a nasty, tyrannical sort who in his stupidity mistakes a recently released cracksman for nephew of the owner, and vice versa, and decides to pin embezzlement on the alleged crackman, really the heir, who has willingly taken the lower position to see what's really going on while his uncle is away. Sebastian Shaw and Jack Melford are the nephew and the real ex-con, complete opposites, and Eve Gray is a delight as Marsh's secretary, a wisecrack in every thought.

The witty script is reminiscent of the classic American screwball comedy 'The Devil and Miss Jones", although that plotline is completely different outside the coincidence of Charles Coburn's character posing as a salesman to spy on goings on in his own store. I found this to be, outside of early Hitchcock films, to be one of the easiest British films of the 30's for Americans to get into, simply because it's not overloaded with hard to understand British dialects slang. This easily could have been remade as an American film with little or nothing changed. Truly a lot of fun with the audience rooting for Marsh to get his comeuppance, not only for being an embezzled, but for being a rotten and condescending boss. At 65 minutes, it's a fast moving delight, and I'm proud to add it to the list of the top films of 1935.